Happy Birthday Hermione!
by N. Forest
Summary: Hermione Granger-Weasley is celebrating her 30th birthday when a dormant curse becomes active and threatens her life. Only with the help of someone who should have died can she save herself. AU.


**Disclaimer: **JKR owns everything. I write only for fun and pleasure.

_Happy Birthday to Hermione Jean Granger, born September 19, 1979. Many happy returns._

Happy Birthday Hermione!

"Good morning." Ron looked up when his wife entered the kitchen. "Sleep well?" He yawned and poured her a cup of coffee from the pot sitting in front of him.

Hermione groaned and pushed her bushy hair out of her face before collapsing into her chair. "I'm going back to bed." She groaned. "There's no way I'm going to work today." She pulled the bagels over to her plate and burnt them with a misjudged spell. "Ugh."

Ron bit back a smile. "Sure sweetheart." He vanished the burnt bagels and handed her the cup of coffee. "It's Saturday. No work." _This has got to be one for the History books. Hermione forgot something! I can't remember the last tie that's happened._

"Great." Hermione drained her coffee cup quickly and stood up with it still in her hand. "I'm going back to bed. Tell the kids to keep it down." She instructed him, while heading back up the stairs.

"The kids are at Harry's. They went over for a sleep over." Ron reminded her again, following her towards the stairs. "We could do something together. Visits the theatre, a restaurant, my parents. Go to the library."

Hermione gave another yawn. "No, I really just want to go to bed." She gestured up the stairs and the coffee cup in her hand dropped onto the floor where it shattered into hundreds of pieces. "Oh, no." Hermione knelt down and started picking the pieces up in her hands.

"Hermione! What are you doing?" Ron tried to grab her wrists and stop her from hurting herself further. Her hands were already bleeding and cut from the sharp ceramic shards. "Reparo." Ron cast the charm and winced as a few tiny pieces were pulled out of Hermione's hands to merge with the now whole cup.

Hermione looked at the blood on her hands. "Ron, I need to get my wand." She tried to pull out of his grasp. "You're pants at healing spells." When he refused to move, she tugged harder. "Come on!"

"No." Ron scooped her up into his arms. He grown to be quite a large man and picking up his wife wasn't difficult, especially once he'd cast a feather-light charm on her. "I'm taking you to St. Mungo's. Hands are hard, you could lose the use of them." He gave the front door a kick and stepped onto the dewy grass.

There was a loud crack and the two appeared outside the department store that disguised St. Mungo's. Ron was in such a hurry to find help for his wife that he didn't notice the muggles staring strangely at him, or the Oblivators that apparated in a few minutes later. He was busy talking to the model and going into the hospital.

The long line of people waiting was rather depressing and he could feel his nervousness increasing. Hermione had done exactly what she had threatened and gone to sleep in his arms. Ron shifted her weight into his other arm and joined the line.

"Mr Weasley?"

Ron was sitting in one of the chairs in the Emergency room at St. Mungo's. It was a busy day and Hermione still hadn't seen anyone. He was almost ready to give up and just try to heal her hands himself, but she'd barely woken at all and the wounds were still red, they hadn't started to scab yet.

"Yeah?" He glanced up at the person above him, they weren't wearing the white robes of a healer so he sighed and slumped back under Hermione's weight. He should have cast another feather-light charm, but it just seemed like too much work.

He was hauled to his feet. "Come with me please."

Ron struggled to keep his eyes open as whoever it was lead him and his wife through the hospital. Hermione was floating along beside them in a chair that had been designed for that very purpose. It was an adaptation of a muggle device, but Ron couldn't remember what it was called.

"Here we are." The voice told him and the door in front of them slid open. Ron forced himself awake and found himself walking into a dungeon like room, it reminded him of the place he'd taken Potions for five years. Dank, dirty.

He glanced around, no healers in sight. But no Death Eaters either. "Where are we?" He turned to the person who'd brought them down here. "Parkinson! What are you doing here?" The Slytherin girl he'd hated in school just scowled at him.

"I work here. Junior Potions Assistant." She told him. "After Draco got involved in the Death Eaters my parents withdrew our betrothal." She nodded toward the door. "Go in, he doesn't like to get kept waiting."

Ron guided the floating chair into the large potions lab. At first he thought it was empty, but a shadow in one of the corners seemed much to active to be simply a shadow. It all reminded him of someone, but that person was long dead and dwelling on those thoughts didn't change anything.

"Weasley? I never thought a Weasley could seek my help."

The shadow came out of the corner and Ron felt his jaw drop. "You died! I saw you die!" He watched as Snape, a man he knew was dead approached him and glared at him and his wife. "And what are you doing here? Why would Parkinson take us to you?"

Snape ignored Ron's questions and slowly walked around Hermione before drawing his wand and casting a spell over her.

"What's that?" Ron asked, he was angry and Hermione couldn't protect herself. "You've been recognized as a war hero. Why are you hiding out down here? No one even knows you're alive!" He told the man. "And you don't teach at Hogwarts!"

"Your intelligence obviously hasn't improved much since Sixth year." Snape spat. "Let's hope Granger's better off."

"What wrong with her?" Ron might have hated Snape, but he loved Hermione with all his heart and he hated seeing her like this. "Did it happen before?"

Snape already had a few potions in front of him. "She used Bellatrix LeStrange's wand. Muggleborns that came into contact with wands during the war have been cursed. Most of them died until a cure was figured out. But sometimes the curse seems to have a delayed effect." He glanced down at a sheaf of notes he'd summoned to himself. "Now shut up."

Snape pointed his wand at Hermione. "I'm going inside her mind. She has to wake up for the cure to work and a simple Ennervate doesn't work with this curse." He didn't wait for Ron to protest and cast a silent Legitimize spell and entered Hermione's mind.

The interior of her mind wasn't what he'd been expecting. There was no comfortable library, no organized desk. Instead it was an army base. Information was intelligence reports, her body was the soldiers themselves. Snape didn't take a place in her mind, but he guessed that he would have shown up as the enemy. Something foreign to be killed.

He walked through the walls of the base, finding his way to the central control room. It wasn't guarded for difficult to find, Hermione had no Occlumency powers. He entered the room quickly and walked up to the head of the base.

"Miss Granger." His voice sounded odd, it boomed into her mind since he wasn't part of her thought, but a separate invasion like force.

The head of the base didn't even bother to look at him. "It's Granger-Weasley. And Mrs." It added on an afterthought.

Snape growled. "Fine. Mrs. Granger-Weasley. It's time to leave. You need to return home. Your husband and children are waiting for you."

"NO!" The head of base shook his head madly. "It's too dangerous out there." He leaned in closer. "And mean." That was said in a whisper.

"This is ridiculous. I'm helping you right now. And I'll take you where ever I want." Snape pointed his wand at the head of the base and spoke an incantation that attempted to change the way Hermione was seeing things. It was suppose to help her recognize what she was doing to herself.

The head of the base screamed as the base disappeared and they appeared in a sitting room. A younger Hermione, Ron and Harry were all sitting together.

"Are you still going to become an auror?" Ron asked, stuffing chocolate in his mouth. "Even though the war's over?"

Harry nodded. "Definitely mate. You too?"

Ron nodded. And ignored Hermione.

"Auror school doesn't sound too bad." She mused. "It's a good field and I wouldn't mind the duelling or maybe becoming a auror field medic." She looked at the two boys. "I already sent in an application and was accepted."

Ron looked angrily at her. "I thought we were going to get married!"

"We are." Hermione protested. "I told you that I was still going to have a career. What did you think I meant? That I was going to hold Tupperware parties?" She glared at him.

Ron opened his mouth to complain again, but Harry touched his arm warningly. "Just drop it mate."

Snape turned to the head of the base. "This is why you don't want to go back?" He asked incre4dlously. "Weasley doesn't think before he speaks. You've gotten into countless arguments with him. And one wrecks everything."

The scene around them changed and another scene played out. This one he recognized. It was when Potter had tried to dose Weasley with the luck potion. He'd always kept close tabs on the trio when they were in school.

As soon as that memory was finished another one played out. Snape was forced to sit through countless memories of Ron being a jerk to his wife. They always made up, but he wasn't pleasant at times.

"Is this really worth all this?" Snape gestured to the army base once they'd returned to it. "He loves you, you have children. You can go out into public without being saying you're a Death Eater. Live Hermione. Please!"

The head of the base seemed to consider it. But he signalled to the other soldiers and things started working again. Snape looked around, happy at his success before retreating back to his own mind.

"How is she?" Ron sprung on the Potions Master the second he pulled out of his wife's head. "Is she better now?"

Snape took the energy potion in front of him and picked up the cure to the curse Hermione was still suffering. He shrugged Ron off and put his arm Hermione to keep her in a stable position to take the potion. "Drink this Miss Granger."

Ron glared when the professor ignored his wife's real name. But since the man was curing her, he didn't protest too loudly.

The potion was fast acting and a few minutes later Hermione opened her eyes and asked for water. Ron was happy to help her.

"Can't you do something about her hands?" He asked Snape. "They still haven't had time to look at her." He muttered something under his breath about the slowness of their hospitals these days.

Snape gave him an amused look. "Of course. The curse was more of a concern. I'm the only person that can stop it and I was busy with another patient."

Ron looked at the man. "Why only you? Is that why they keep you secret?" He asked curiously, eager to know more about the Potion Master's hideout.

"Because I bear the mark of him." Snape gripped his arm, the mark was faded but it could still be seen clearly enough that he didn't dare where short sleeves. "The Dark Lord cast the curse, only one of his may remove it. And I choose to stay alone. I don't want to be a war hero."

Snape looked closely at Hermione's hands. "I'll fix these now."

"Thank you Professor Snape." Hermione waited for him to clean her hands and slowly cast the charms that reknit the skin and faded the scars until they disappeared. "For everything." She got out of the floating chair.

Ron looked awkwardly at the teacher he hated the most. "Thanks Sir."

Snape glared at the two of them. "Get out of my potions lab." He sent the chair away and the door opened to reveal a snoozing Pansy Parkinson.

This time, Ron made sure to go somewhere safer before apparating to the Burrow. They were late for the surprise party, but since it was being held for Hermione nothing had started yet.

That night after the children had gone to bed, the trio shared a drink and laughed and cried together as they told stories and shared memories. Hermione smiled and listened to their tales of Auror school, glad that she'd become a politician instead.


End file.
